GPVT 409M: Seminar in IR and World Politics: Nationalist Groups and Ethnic Conflict
Syllabus draft 1/23/2017
Course time: Tues. & Thurs. 11:00 – 12:15
Course location: Tydings 2102
Prof. Kathleen Gallagher Cunningham
Office: Chincoteague 3117 D
Office Hours: Thurs. 12:15-1:15 & by appt.
Course aims: This course is an advanced seminar on nationalism and ethnic conflict. Students are
expected to gain an understanding of the major causes and consequences of ethnic, nationalist, and
separatist conflict. The course will focus on both theories of ethnicity and nationalism, as well as
theories of conflict related to these issues. The course will also explore empirical trends in ethnic and
nationalist politics.
Evaluation and Grading: Student grades are based the following
Exam 1
30%
Exam 2
30%
Research paper or analysis papers
40%
Exams are short answer and taken in class or on final exam day. Students have two options for the
writing component. The first option is a traditional research paper where student will apply a set of
theories to a conflict and the paper (12-15 pages) is due at the time of the final. The topic must be
approved beforehand. The second option is a set of three analysis papers. Each will be 5 pages in
length and will follow from a prompt given in class. The response papers will also entail application
of theory from class and some independent research. Response papers will be due periodically
during the semester and cannot be turned in together at the end of term.
Books and assigned readings: There is one required books available through the university book
center. All other readings are posted on the course site.
• Sustainable Peace by Roeder & Rothchild
Code of conduct: The University of Maryland, College Park has a nationally recognized Code of
Academic Integrity, administered by the Student Honor Council. This Code sets standards for
academic integrity at Maryland for all undergraduate and graduate students. As a student, you are
responsible for upholding these standards for this course. It is very important for you to be aware of
the consequences of cheating, fabrication, facilitation, and plagiarism. For more information on the
Code of Academic Integrity or the Student Honor Council, please visit
http://osc.umd.edu/OSC/Default.aspx
Cell phone policy: The use of cell phones is not permitted in class. Students are expected to
participate actively in discussion.
Email policy: The best way to discuss course material and any issues with course logistics in in
person. Please only email to set up an appointment with me. You do not need to contact me about
missing regular class meeting. I will assume you are making every effort to attend each session.
Missing class: The University of Maryland has a new policy regarding medically necessitated
absences from class. Under the new policy, we will accept a self-signed note from the student
attesting to the date of the illness as an excused absence from a single class in which there is no
major grading event scheduled. A student is allowed only ONE self-signed note per class per
semester. There are three major scheduled grading events: the two exams.
A student who experiences a prolonged absence or an illness preventing attendance at a major
scheduled grading event is required to provide written documentation of the illness from the Health
Center or an outside health care provider, verifying the dates of the treatment and the time period
during which the student was unable to meet academic responsibilities.
Students with disabilities: I will make every effort to accommodate students who are registered
with the Disability Support Services (DSS) Office. Students who are not registered with DSS or who
do not provide us with documentation or have not had that documentation reviewed by DSS early
in the semester cannot be accommodated.
Religious Observance: By the end of September students must provide in writing a request for a
make up of exams and other required assignments if the syllabus indicates a date when you are
unable to attend due to a specific religious observance.
Approximate course schedule (*subject to change, any changes will be posted on ELMS)
1/26 : Introduction
• No assigned readings
Section theme: What are ethnicity & nationalism and how should we think about them?
1/31: The concept of identity politics (part 1)
• Hechter
• Selection 1 from Nationalism
• Optional: Anderson and Hutchinson selections.
2/2: The concept of identity politics (part 2)
• Kedourie
• Brass
2/7: Mapping identity groups and emerging nations (part 1)
• Chandra, “What is Ethnicity and Does It Matter?” Annual Review of Political Science, 2006, Vol.
9: 397-424.
2/9: Mapping identity groups and emerging nations (part2)
• Posner. 2004. “The Political Salience of Cultural Difference: Why Chewas and Tumbukas
Are Allies in Zambia and Adversaries in Malawi.” American Political Science Review 98(4): 529545.
• Hale. 2004. “Explaining Ethnicity.” Comparative Political Studies. 37(4): 458-485.
**response paper option 1 prompt posted on ELMS**
2/14: Who are the relevant actors? (part 1)
• Cunningham. 2011. “Divide and Conquer or Divide and Concede: How Do States Respond
to Internally Divided Separatists?” American Political Science Review 105(2): 275-297.
2/16: Who are the relevant actors? (part 2)
• Pearlman. 2008/9. "Spoiling Inside and Out: Internal Political Contestation and the Middle
East Peace Process" International Security 3(33): 79-109.
2/21: Who are the relevant actors? (part 3) – guest lecture by Brandon Ives (Ph.D candidate GVPT)
**response paper option 1 due [send through ELMS]**
•
Stuart Kaufman, “Symbols, Frames, and Violence: Studying Ethnic War in the Philippines,”
International Studies Quarterly, Dec. 2011.
2/23: No Class
Section theme: Conditions that lead to mobilization and conflict
2/28: Protest & mobilization
• Jenne. 2004. “A Bargaining Theory of Minority Demands: Explaining the Dog that Didn’t
Bite in 1990s Yugoslavia,” International Studies Quarterly 48(4): 729-754.
• Brancati. 2006. “Decentralization: Fueling the Fire or Dampening the Flames of Ethnic
Conflict and Secessionism?” International Organization 60: 651–685
3/2: Lines of conflict (part 1)
• Mueller. 2000. “The banality of ethnic war.” International Security 25(1): 42–70.
3/7: Lines of conflict (part 2)
• Seymour and Cunningham Identity Issues and Civil war
• Recommended: Rogers Brubaker “Ethnicity without Groups” and Stathis Kalyvas
“Ontology of Political Violence”
3/9: Review for Exam 1
**response paper option 2 prompt posted on ELMS**
3/14: Exam 1
3/16: Irredentist and dominant nationality conflict (part 1)
• Saideman and Ayres. 2000. “Determining the Causes of Irredentism: Logit Analyses of
Minorities at Risk Data from the 1980s and 1990s” The Journal of Politics 62(4): 1126-1144.
• Zariski. 1989. “Ethnic Extremism among Ethnoterritorial Minorities in Western Europe;
Dimensions, Causes and Institutional Responses.” Comparative Politics 21(3): 253-272.
**response paper option 2 due [send through ELMS]**
3/28: Secession
• Gourevitch. 1979. “The Re-emergence of ‘Peripheral Nationalisms’: Some Comparative
Speculations on the Spatial Distribution of Political Leadership and Economic Growth.”
Comparative Studies in Society and History 21(3): 303-322
• Walter. 2006. Information, Uncertainty, and the Decision to Secede. International Organization
60(1): 105-135.
3/30: Public goods and development (part 1)
• Alesina et al. 1999. “Public Goods and Ethnic Divisions. The Quarterly Journal of Economics
114(4): 1243-1284.
• Habyarimana et al. 2007. “Why Does Ethnic Diversity Undermine Public Goods Provision?
An Experimental Approach.” American Political Science Review 101 (4): 709-725.
4/4: Public goods and development (part 2)
• Miguel. 2004. “Tribe or Nation? Nation Building and Public Goods in Kenya versus
Tanzania.” World Politics 56(April): 327-62.
• Recommended: Robert Bates “Ethnic Competition and Modernization in Contemporary
Africa”
**response paper option 3 prompt posted on ELMS**
Section theme: Resolving & preventing conflict
4/6: Nationalism and Democratization
• Zakaria, “The Rise of Illiberal Democracy,” Foreign Affairs, Nov. 1997.
• Snyder. From Voting to Violence: Democratization and Nationalist Conflict, Ch. 1.
4/11: Building/maintaining peace (part 1)
• Selections from Sustainable Peace: Read ch 1
**response paper option 3 due [send through ELMS]**
4/13: Building/maintaining peace (part 2)
• Sustainable Peace: Read ch 3
4/18: Building/maintaining peace (part 3)
• Sustainable Peace: Read ch 4
**response paper option 4 prompt posted on ELMS**
4/20: Building/maintaining peace (part 4)
• Sustainable Peace: Read ch 5
4/25: Building/maintaining peace (part 5)
• Sustainable Peace: Read ch 9
**response paper option 4 due [send through ELMS]**
4/27: Building/maintaining peace (part 6)
• Sustainable Peace: Read ch 11
5/2: Building/maintaining peace (part 7)
• Fortna. 2004. “Does Peacekeeping Keep Peace? International Intervention and the Duration
of Peace After Civil War.” International Studies Quarterly 48: 269–292
**response paper option 5 prompt posted on ELMS**
5/4: Possibly of partition and secession
• Kaufmann. “Possible and Impossible Solutions to Ethnic War,” International Security,
spring 1996.
• Kumar. “The Troubled History of Partition,” Foreign Affairs, January/February 1997,
rebuttal to Kaufmann.
5/9: Viability of secession
• Horowitz. April 2003. “The Cracked Foundations of the Right to Secede,” Journal of
Democracy 14(2): 5-17.
• Sambanis. July 2000. “Partition as a Solution to Ethnic War: An Empirical Critique of the
Theoretical Literature,” World Politics 52(4): 437-483.
**response paper option 5 due [send through ELMS]**
5/11: Exam review
Final exam date TBA. Term paper option due at time of final exam.